1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for removing the entrails of slaughtered birds, comprising means for the positioning of the birds so that they are supported in a fixed position, and also an oblong carrier, adapted to be moved into and out of the bird and carrying at its end a spoon-shaped extractor member, which is rockable about a transverse pivot axis and is provided with a central cutout, and which after the carrier has been introduced can be pivoted to a position in which it is at an angle to the carrier so that when the carrier makes its return movement it will extract the packet of entrails.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such apparatus are commonly known; a specific embodiment thereof is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,879,803. In these known devices the bird rests during the drawing operation on its back on a support while the spoon shaped extractor member is introduced into the body of the bird through the anal cut and describes a curved path; the front end of the spoon then rotates over about 90.degree. in the direction of the back and during the return stroke the entrails are removed from the bird.
Before the bird is subjected to this operation the head of the bird with part of the wind pipe and gullet has been removed by means of a, commonly known apparatus. During this operation the bird hangs by its legs in the usual hooks and the force, directed away from the body, is exterted on the head: the previously cut neck is then torn off and when the distance between head and body increases gullet and wind pipe brakes off at the weakest places, the gullet in the part between the head and the crop.
In practice the place at which the wind pipe tears differs. Sometimes the wind pipe tears near to the lungs and is removed entirely, together with the gullet which has been torn between head and crop from the neck; during the subsequent drawing operation in which the complete packet of entrails is removed the lungs and the crop, hanging by a gullet part on the gizzard, are removed from the body of the bird. No entrails are then present in the body anymore.
However, the wind pipe is connected to the lungs at the place of the transition to the lungs by a small muscle while there is often, particularly in birds which are somewhat older, near to the lung some tissue between wind pipe and neck so that often the resistance, brought about by these muscles and tissue is so great that the wind pipe does not tear near to the lungs but between the tissue and the head. When then the entrails are removed the wind pipe tears again near to the lungs so that part of the wind pipe remains in the bird. This must be removed later by hand.